The older kids dressed differently from the younger ones. From about 12 upwards the boys were in long pants but I, along with the other younger boys wore short pants.

Shoes

The parents of one of the older boys had a shoe shop. It was from this shop that we had new shoes about 3 times a year. The shoes were Clark shoes. A company with a reputation for making good quality shoes for children. Clark shoes were sturdy leather shoes. They were not sandals. This was leisure wear. I can't recall going to school in white ankle socks, as in the photograph here. I do remember grey woolen knee length ones. Sandals were not suitable school footwear. It rains a lot and ones feet would soon be wet through. Gosh that would have someone coming round from social services investigating child neglect. No we had leather shoes but the soles were made out of rubber for a long life. Before we tried on a pair of shoes the child's feet were measured and then shoes were tried on. The shoes were either brown or black. Lighter footwear was also purchased for the summer. These were the sandals.

Figure 3.-- This picture shows my brother and me and the little girl my brother made friends with. She stayed at the same hotel as we did on our 1956 holiday to Scarborough. She was my brother's best friend throughout the vacation. Notice that we are wearing our blazers.

Kneesocks

Knee socks were always grey. We never had white knee socks. Ankle socks were worn with sports wear. Knee socks were worn on warm days to school and in leisure time. However they were always down at ankle level so we were always being told to pull your socks up. We would not wear socks on the beach at the seaside. We would go with them on but as soon as we hit the beach off would come shoes and socks. We went bare footed on the beach.

Types

We had three types of clothing. Sunday best, School wear and play clothes. Over the year clothes changed their status has the clothes passed down the line. A new suit would become Sunday best and the former Sunday best suit would became school wear and school wear became play clothes. Old clothes either were worn by my brother. The very old clothes might go to a church jumble sale. If they were very worn they would go to the rag and bone man. He collected rags in exchange for a donkey stone. This was a yellow stone which mum used when she cleaned the front doorstep. The donkey stone coloured the corners of the doorstep yellow.

Cords

I wore cords as a boy. They were brown short pants worn in the Summer of 1959.

Easter

Easter was the time for buying a new suit. Mum would take us to a tailors shop in town. Here we were measured for a suit. The pattern came out of a catalogue and it would subsequently be made up. At first mum did the selecting but as we got older we were aloud to make the selection. There was not a lot to choose from so the freedom was not epic making! We never got to wear the suit until the family vacation to the seaside. Other summer clothes purchased prior to the holiday would also be worn then.

Summer

Some of the summer clothes like the blazer would became school wear after the summer vacation. Before the start of the new academic year mum would purchase back-to-school clothes. These would be shirts, grey socks, grey jersey and a pair of new school shoes. An overcoat and school mackintosh would be purchased for winter wear. The old suit would be worn for school while the new one would be kept for best and special occasions. Sunday was a day when I wore it. You dressed in your best suit to attend church. Afterwards, the day was spent visiting relatives or attending special functions. One year I was allowed to choose the blazer I would wear during the summer. I have a photograph which must have been taken at school early in September. I know this because there is a badge in the lapel showing the Skull and Crossbones. This was given out on a holiday day cruise. I enjoyed wearing this blazer. It was blue with yellow braiding around the cuffs. I felt very smart wearing it.

Long Trouser Suit

I had my first long trouser suit June 1960. It was on holiday that I was allowed to wear my first long trouser suit. I had selected it from the shop catalogue. I was 12 and remember feeling very grown up that I was at last in long trousers. It took another few months before I was in long trousers proper because I had to wear out the short pants first.

Subsequent Outfits

After I got my first long trouser suit in the summer of 1960, I still continued to wear short trousers for play wear, at least for a while. But by Christmas 1960 I was in long trousers for both play, school and Sunday best. We could not wear short troupers because we had had a destroy them ceremony. We danced around the house ripping them to shreds! Much to the hilarious laughter of my parents. Short trousers after that were sports shorts and maybe khaki shorts for leisure wear in the summer.

Jeans

Jeans were not often worn. We might have one pair which would last until we out grew them. Our hairstyle was short back and sides but at about 9 or 10 the crew cut became popular. My peer group and I had our hair cut to this style until the fashion waned.

William Eric Ferguson